05: What If?
by Silent Elegy
Summary: What if Danny Phantom never existed? How different would things be? What if a mistake was made that enabled him to find out? Will his presence change things for the better, or make them inexorably worse?
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Danny Phantom and all related characters (including their Alternate Universe counterparts) are the product of Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon studios. The Guardians of Space and Kat/Electra are the product Silent Elegy.

* * *

"You two, that way!" Sheriff Walker yelled. "The rest of you, get over there and head him off!" He looked in the direction his quarry had taken and growled. "I'll catch you yet, punk." 

It was a relatively normal day as far as the Ghost Zone went, with Walker trying to catch Public Ghost Enemy Number One, Danny Phantom. Danny had a very good reason for entering the Ghost Zone on this fine day. An old friend of his, Wulf had sent a message asking for his help.

At least, he thought Wulf was asking for help. The werewolf ghost didn't speak much English, and Danny didn't know any Esperanto. Therefore, it had been up to Tucker to decipher the message, and he didn't speak Esperanto very well. Unfortunately, it was a moot point now. Just as Danny had found Wulf, Walker had attacked, and they had been forced to split ways. All efforts to return to his parents' Ghost Portal had met with armed guards. After nearly being captured twice, Danny decided to head deeper into the Ghost Zone in the hopes of loosing his pursuers. So far, he was having little luck.

The ghost boy glanced behind him to see how close Walker's goons had gotten, then looked forward again just in time to avoid crashing into the eight guards that jumped out in front of him. He ducked below a blast from someone's weapon and veered off to the right. He was in an area he didn't recognize, which didn't bode well. If he was going to lose Walker, he was going to have to start opening doors. Sometimes they were portals to the Real World; he figured he could find his way home from there.

The first two doors he tried led to ghost lairs, and the occupants were none too happy to see him. The third opened onto a swirling red and blue portal of some sort. Since every portal he had ever seen was green, he decided not to risk it. The fourth led to a large room, empty save for the mirrors that lined the walls. He ducked inside and slammed the door, then leaned against it while he caught his breath.

"This one now…" whispered a voice that caused Danny to jump in alarm. "It's interesting…"

The boy dropped slightly into a battle-ready stance and looked around. There was nothing there, unless the voice came from one of the mirrors.

"Step forward, child," whispered a second voice. "Let us see you."

It was almost like being in a well-lit funhouse. As Danny took a few cautious steps into the room, he saw his reflection twisted and distorted in the various mirrors. Some showed him more or less as he was; in others, he looked menacing, insane, or downright evil. One in particular showed an image of his evil older self, whom he had locked away in the Fenton Thermos and given to Clockwork. The place made him decidedly uneasy.

Actually, it was kind of scary.

As he looked at his various reflections, one caught his eye: the only one that didn't show him in some variation on his ghost form. Curious, he walked toward his human image; it tilted its head and shifted from foot to foot. "What is this?" Danny asked.

"We are the Guardians of Space," the image answered in his voice. "We have been watching you, child. Every one of you."

"There's only one of me," he protested.

The Guardian gestured at its brethren. "Look around you. There are infinite versions of you; these we present are only a few of the choices you could have made."

"We have been waiting for you," said one of the others. "We knew you would find your way here, in time."

Danny looked around. They weren't acting hostile toward him, but he felt threatened. "Look, I don't know what you want with me, but you're not getting it." He turned angrily back to the door and stalked through it. He had forgotten what drove him into that room to begin with; fortunately, Walker seemed to have given up the chase for now. He retraced his steps back to the Ghost Portal.

Inside the room, his reflections vanished as an elderly ghost in white robes appeared. He glared into the mirrors for several moments, then turned into a very young child and pretended to fidget with his clock-topped staff. "You know, the boy is my responsibility," he seemed to address no one in particular.

"Only on this plane, Master of Time," whispered a Guardian. "We require his services to deal with a problem."

"A problem that you allowed to occur, if I'm not mistaken."

"We confess that we were at fault, but we must restore the situation to normalcy. You may interfere if you deem it necessary. The boy is, after all, your responsibility."

Clockwork switched his to his old form again, then frowned and became an adult. "Very well, I'll allow you this one. But I will be keeping an eye on the situation."

* * *

Danny glanced around, mildly confused. He had met absolutely no opposition on his way home. The few ghosts out and about had pretty much ignored him; it was unusual. He shrugged and floated back through the Ghost Portal… 

…and right into the barrel of a Ghost Bazooka.


	2. Chapter One

Danny lifted his hands slowly into the air and said, "I didn't do it."

The Ghost Bazooka lowered ever so slightly so that he could see his father's face beyond it. Considering the speed with which he had been set upon, he would have expected his mother; this put him off balance. Then he noticed that Jack looked different. There was more grey in his hair, and the goofy, good-natured look in his eyes was replaced by harsh surliness. The most glaring disparity, however, was an old scar situated just above his left eye. Danny had been gone for a few hours, maybe. It might have been enough time to acquire the wound, but certainly not enough for it to have healed.

"Geeze," breathed Jazz's astonished voice. "He could be your twin, Danny."

"All right, ghost!" Jack growled before the boy could ask what she meant. He jerked his weapon ever so slightly to the right, a clear indication that Danny should head that way.

Things did not add up at all. As Danny turned to float in the appropriate direction, he saw a large, clear, rectangular box; a prison, he realized as he was forced into it. It had not been there earlier, and there was no chance that his parents could have built it while he was gone. It was far too sophisticated. He couldn't even touch the walls, let alone faze through them. Then, of course, there were his captors.

Without the Ghost Bazooka filling most of his vision, he was able to see that his father was too thin, almost gaunt for Jack Fenton. Jazz wore a blue hazmat, something she normally wouldn't be caught dead in, and her hair was cut short. And Danny…

He shared his father's grim expression, and held a plasma rifle tightly in both hands. There was fear in his eyes, but anger as well. He wore a white hazmat; the same one Danny Phantom had been wearing when he went into the Ghost Portal the first time.

The Guardians of Space had sent him to an alternate reality.

"What are you going to do to me?" the ghost boy asked. The humans glanced at him suspiciously and quietly went back to their conversation. They seemed to be waiting for something; after a long time, Jack sighed and closed the Ghost Portal, and the three of them went upstairs. The lights went out. Worried, sad, and somewhat afraid, Danny hovered in his prison in the dark.

It was like being in solitary confinement. The only light came from his ghostly glow; there was no sound whatsoever. Even the usual noises of human habitation were non-existent. He sighed miserably and wondered if his parents had missed him yet. He wondered if Jazz would tell them what happened. He wondered if he'd ever get free.

He didn't want to wonder if he'd ever get home.

Time didn't even seem to exist anymore. It could have been a few hours or a few years, but eventually the quiet sound of a door opening cut through the silence, quickly followed by a crack of light that cut through the dark. All senses alert again, the boy hovered as close to the wall as he could get to watch himself creep down the stairs.

They stared at each other for a long time before human Danny demanded, "Who are you?" Doubtless he was as unnerved as the rest of his family by their resemblance.

"Call me Phantom," the ghost boy answered.

"Phantom," Danny sneered. "Fine. What do you want?"

Phantom shrugged and tried to act as innocuous as possible. "I got lost trying to get home."

"So, what? You just wander into random portals when you're lost?"

"Yeah," he answered with a bright smile. "Pretty much." They resumed staring: one hostile, the other making every effort to be friendly. What happened in this world, Phantom couldn't help but wonder. Would it be wise to ask?

Eventually, Danny spoke again. "You're not like the other ghosts." His tone was skepticism mixed with…was that hope?

Phantom shrugged again. "I wouldn't know. I'm kind of new around here." He paused for the barest fraction of a second and decided to barrel ahead anyway. "What happened?"

Danny's expression became very dark, and he walked a few steps away. Without looking at his audience, he began, "Pariah Dark happened." Phantom was just about to press for details when the human boy continued. "An old friend of my dad…well, he's not such a friend anymore. He's a ghost, or something. I don't even know what he was trying to do. He just…he released Pariah and…and Mom…" He broke off with a barely repressed sob. After a few minutes, he seemed to get himself under control and turned back around. "She said she'd come back and help. We were waiting for her when you showed up."

"Was it Plasmius or Pariah?" Phantom demanded. Maybe this wasn't exactly his mother, but he certainly wasn't going to let the culprit get away with it.

Danny narrowed his eyes. "I never said his name was Plasmius."

"Oh! Um…Well, he's kind of…famous. In the Ghost Zone, I mean."

The boy didn't appear to be any less suspicious, but he did answer. "Pariah. He…and…and Mom…" He swallowed and looked at the ground. "It was my fault," he whispered.

"Don't say that!" Phantom exclaimed, perhaps a bit too forcefully because his double flinched. "Whatever happened, it was Pariah's fault. Not yours. Mo-Maddie wouldn't want you to think that way!"

"You've seen her?" Danny asked breathlessly. He threw himself against the reinforced plastic, desperate for confirmation.

Phantom mentally cursed himself for an idiot and stammered out a response. "Uh…not…not exactly." The look of pure despair on the boy's face nearly sent the ghost into tears. If he were able to cry as a ghost, he probably would have been.

Danny didn't bother to ask how Phantom knew his mother's name. He crumpled to the floor and leaned against the plastic wall. "Why did you really come here?" he asked, barely audible.

Phantom closed his eyes. "I think…I came to help." And whether or not that was actually true no longer mattered. Pariah was loose in this world, just as he had been in Phantom's world once. Only here, the humans didn't have a champion willing to sacrifice half-life and limb for them. Maybe this wasn't his world, but it was his responsibility, now.

"You're…really not like the other ghosts, are you?"

"I try not to be."

The long silence this time was almost companionable. Danny clearly did not trust the ghost boy, but he seemed to want to be convinced that he could. Certainly, that was more than could be said for the other two members of his family. He stood and brushed off some imaginary dirt particles. He seemed to be on the verge of saying something, but changed his mind and went back upstairs without so much as a goodbye. Phantom sighed; it was going to be a long night.

* * *

A slam sent the bleary-eyed boy to his feet; he had fallen asleep. He had changed back into a human in his sleep. Phantom jumped into the air and reverted to his ghost form before the stomping footsteps could prove to belong to Jack. The ghost hunter didn't even look in his prisoner's direction; he dashed across the room, looking around for something. Apparently, he found it because he dashed back upstairs. The whole process took just over thirty seconds.

Phantom sighed and twisted around to hover on his back. This was going to be a long day, too, wasn't it? He heard a crash from upstairs and hoped everything was all right. There was nothing he could do to help from in here. Surely, this alternate version of his father was more competent that the one he was used to. He had managed to get the Ghost Portal working without his son having his molecules scrambled, after all.

A second crash was followed by a short scream that sounded like Jazz. Phantom threw himself into the ghost-proofed wall by instinct and growled angrily when he was repelled. A third crash caused the lights to go out, and the basement door suddenly slammed into the floor and slid a few feet. It was quickly followed by Danny, who pulled himself unsteadily to his feet before collapsing again.

Phantom fazed through his prison and rushed to the boy's side. "Are you okay?" he exclaimed, despite glaring evidence to the contrary.

"Not for long," answered the leisurely drawl of Walker as he descended the steps.

"Leave him alone!"

The sheriff scoffed and gave Phantom a dubious look. "Heh, if I didn't know any better, I might think you actually cared about this brat or something."

"So what if I do?" the ghost boy demanded.

Walker raised an eyebrow at that. "What are you going to do, punk? Fight me?" He laughed loud and long at the thought.

Phantom smirked. If there was one thing he learned about fighting ghosts, it was to never play fair. While Walker's attention was focused on the apparent hilarity, the ghost boy swung a fist that connected solidly with his enemy's face. The astonished ghost was thrown backward, going intangible just in time to avoid hitting the stairs. He lunged back out a moment later, and the two grappled for the upper hand until a shot from a plasma rifle knocked Walker away. Right on the heels of this event, he was pulled into a Ghost Weasel that was then aimed at Phantom before he could think to react.

"No!" Danny exclaimed, or tried to. "He saved me."

"He's a ghost!" Jazz argued.

"Let him go," Jack said from somewhere near the stairs. "We've got bigger problems." He helped Danny to his feet and made sure he was okay before continuing. "Vlad's vultures took out the ghost shield around the school. We got to get there. Get rid of him and let's go."

Phantom didn't wait around to see what happened next. He shot straight up through the house and angled for the school. If Jack was worried enough to let a ghost go, it must mean a lot people were in danger. He tried not to let his first glimpse of this reality overwhelm him.

The sun shown brightly on a ruined world. Buildings that once stood tall and majestic over the beautiful city now crumbled and fell in on themselves in a wrecked wasteland. There were a few green domes of light here and there to represent the last bastions of civilization. As for the rest…

Phantom planted his eyes firmly on his destination and refused to look at anything else. It was too painful.


	3. Chapter Two

The football field at Casper High was dotted with tents. No longer was it a place of learning, but a place where people lived. It had been surrounded by a ghost shield to keep the small community safe; now that it was down, an army of skeleton ghosts had begun their advance. The school grounds had quickly become a war zone. Flashes of green light announced the presence of plasma rifles among the humans. At least, they weren't going down without a fight.

Phantom had an advantage over the ghosts in that they couldn't fly, enabling him to hover above them and hit them with ectoplasmic energy blasts. Of course, this also made him an open target for "friendly fire". He dodged one last rifle blast and dove into the fray, punching and kicking with reckless abandon. For every enemy he knocked to pieces, two more stepped forward to take its place. So intent was he on keeping himself alive that he didn't even notice how close he was getting to the front line until, bruised and battered, he came face to face with a firing squad.

"Don't hurt him!" Danny exclaimed, jumping between the ghost boy and the humans. Phantom hadn't even noticed the Fentons arrive.

"Danny! Get away from that ghost!" Jack yelled, fearfully. "It's dangerous!"

"No, he's not! He's trying to help!"

Phantom landed behind his human double and cautiously peeked around him. Everyone was looking around at everyone else, trying to figure out what was going on. No ghost had ever tried to help them before, so it had to be a trick. However, the opposing forces had superior numbers and the advantage of already being dead; they had no need of such trickery.

Jack clearly feared for his son's life, but dared not try to attack. Instead, he continued to try to talk the boy into getting out of the way. "It's a ghost! One of the beings that killed your mother! Get away from it before it does the same to you!"

"Phantom's not like the others," Danny persisted.

People were starting to move into a loose circle around the two Dannys. Phantom looked around nervously. "Maybe I should go…" he muttered. A familiar laugh suddenly broke into the confrontation, and everyone turned to see the source. "Oh, no…"

One of the goal posts was still standing; people used it primarily for a clothesline. Balanced arrogantly in the crook of one corner with a gloved hand against the metal pole was a ghost. At least, she might have been ghost; Phantom had never been certain, but she never set off his ghost sense. She wore an eighteen hundreds' style coat over a frilly dress shirt and black pants. Her short, dusty blonde hair was covered by an old top hat, which served to aid a half mask in obscuring her face. Her eyes, brown in his world, were a fiery red in this one.

"You know that ghost?" Danny whispered. His tone indicated that he had run afoul of her before.

"Electra, right?" Phantom responded. In his world, she was a friend. Here…well, at least he had the advantage of knowing the way she fought. He jumped up to hover about eye level with her. "Leave now and I won't kick your butt!" he announced with all audacity.

She removed her hat and twirled it with her free hand. "Oh, my dear boy, it is to laugh! Think you truly to defeat Electra, master of-"

"Don't you ever shut up?" he interrupted, having listened to variations on that particular introduction too many times to count from both the girl and her father. He glanced around; there were no handy vehicles too throw around, so she would use electricity as her primary weapon. Once, that might have worried him. Since meeting Kat Technus, however, he had been subjected to all manner of shocks and jolts. It was her friendly way of teasing him. His system was rather used to it by now.

If there was one thing his Kat hated more than anything else, it was being interrupted. He was happy to note that this world's Electra was no exception. Her eyes and hair crackled and sparked as she tossed her hat aside and floated into the air. Dramatic? Of course. Wise? Not in the slightest. "As a gentleman," she began. "I am hardly prone to violence. Yet to you, sir, I bite my thumb!" And then she did just that.

Phantom snickered. During the time of Shakespeare, that was a horrible insult. Now, it was just funny. He returned the gesture just to infuriate her further; it was so easy to do. "Come on, then!" he yelled back as he flew around her in an attempt to carry the fight away from the humans. "Katherine, isn't it?"

Predictably, she yelled, "Katrina! It's Katrina, you mewling dogfish!"

Kat's biggest weakness was, if anything, her ego. She hated it when people got her name wrong almost as much as she hated to be interrupted. Consequently, she was more than willing to take the bait and follow Phantom away from the school grounds. Her second mistake, of course, was the fact that she hadn't landed yet. She didn't move very fast in the air, and she couldn't hover for more than a few minutes, a limit to which she was quickly reaching the end.

Phantom threw an energy blast and put up his ghost shield to intercept the electrical onslaught that followed. She drifted back down to the ground; apparently, he had not yet succeeded in making her so angry she stopped thinking. At the first break in the attack, he dropped his shield and lunged forward. He fully expected her to teleport out of the way in a thick blue smoke, but he was wrong. It was red. The good news was that she reappeared directly behind him, perfect for a swift kick in the stomach. He made a mental note try that out on his Kat the next time she started to be infuriating.

"Oh, you will pay for that, little ghost!" Electra growled. They engaged in a round of fisticuffs, and Phantom let himself be knocked to the ground. He smirked inwardly when his opponent let her guard down to laugh victoriously.

"Hey, Kat!" he called, acquiring her attention mere moments before blasting her again. He hovered over her as she hit the ground. "Wow. And here I thought you were too smart to fall for a trick like that."

"This isn't over, ghost child," she sneered. Phantom hadn't realized exactly how close they had come to the Fenton RV. He didn't even notice it until it plowed into him.

* * *

"He's coming around," said an unfamiliar voice.

"What is it?" asked another as blurry forms swam into focus.

Phantom blinked; he was lying on the ground surrounded by people. Some, he recognized. Others, he did not. All of them were staring as though he was the freakiest thing they had ever seen. Then he realized why. He had been knocked unconscious and changed back into a human.

He turned his head to see his mirror image sitting next to him and grinned weakly. "Um…I can explain…"

Danny shook his head. "It's alright," he said quietly. "I think I know."

"You do?"

"All right, people!" Jack yelled suddenly. "Show's over! Everyone get back under the ghost shield before Electra comes back!" Mumbling and griping, the populace complied. Jazz went grudgingly to make sure everyone made it to safety while her father turned his attention to Phantom, now standing. "What are you?" he demanded.

The boy started to reply, but he was cut off by Danny, who yelled, "Why didn't you ever tell me, Dad?"

Ghost and ghost hunter shared identical expressions of bewilderment as the latter responded. "Tell you what?"

"That I had a twin brother!"

"What?" Phantom exclaimed.

Jack stared in confusion for a second. "You never had a brother, Danny," he said quietly.

"Then what's he, huh? I knew it the second I saw him! He looks exactly like me!"

"I'm from an alternate reality," Phantom interjected. The debate in progress came to an abrupt halt. Now that he had their undivided attention, he briefly explained meeting the Guardians of Space and his theory that he had been sent here to help deal with Pariah Dark.

Jack rubbed his face, unsure whether to laugh, believe him, or just send him back to the Ghost Zone. Finally, he asked, "So who are you, then? Really?"

The moment he had been dreading since he first walked into the Ghost Portal: telling his father. The fact that this wasn't actually his father made little difference. On the other hand, he needed them to trust him if he was going to help, and lying would only make it worse. He took a deep breath. "Phantom. Danny…Phantom." He looked pointedly at his double, who couldn't decide whether to be scared or confused.

"You're…me…?" Danny whispered. He shook his head in disbelief.

"What's going on?" Jazz demanded as she approached.

As though awakening from some spell, Jack shook himself and turned to her. "We're going to discuss that back at the house. Everyone's okay?"

"A few injuries; nothing major. They've got plenty of supplies left."

"Good. Keep an eye on…Phantom here while I make sure the Assault Vehicle will still run. Danny, come with me." The boy remained where he was until he was called a second time, and continued to look back over his shoulder as he caught up.

Phantom watched them go, then turned back to find a plasma rifle practically shoved into his nose. He jerked back.

"One false move, Phantom," Jazz warned. "Just one."

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

A/N: Yeah, Danny refers to human Danny, while Phantom is referring to our Danny.


	4. Chapter Three

With the power back on, the Fenton Ghost Prison was working again. Phantom hovered inside it dejectedly while his double sat in a chair across from him, staring. Jack and Jazz had rushed off to deal something or other; Danny had begged off on the grounds that someone needed to guard the prisoner. The rest of his family had been in too big of a hurry to argue. He wanted to release the ghost boy, but if Jack found out, he'd be livid.

Several times during the interval that followed, Danny had taken a breath as though to speak. He had yet to actually say anything, and Phantom was wondering if he should go first when the boy finally got his thoughts in order. "How d-did you…you know…die?"

Phantom smiled and shook his head. "I didn't," he explained. "In my world, Dad's kind of a goof-up, and he couldn't figure out how to get the portal working. So I went in to kind of look around, and I guess I hit a button or something. There was this flash of light, and I passed out. When I came to…" He gestured at himself, "I was half ghost."

Danny stood and walked up to the prison wall. "Dad's kind of a goof-up here, too," he admitted fondly. "At least, he used to be…Him and Mom kind of gave up on it for a while. Then ghosts started showing up because Vlad was sending them from his portal. So Mom and Dad got ours fixed, so we'd have a way to send them back." He stared at his feet for a while before asking, "Is Mom…did she…"

"She's still alive," Phantom answered. "They don't know about me, though. I'm kind of scared to tell them."

Danny grinned sympathetically. "I would be, too. But don't they try to hunt you down, then?"

"All the time," the ghost boy sighed. "All the time. But I don't mind too much. I still get to be a superhero."

They fell into silence then as they tried to figure out how to phrase their next questions. It wasn't everyday a person was able to find out what might have been, and neither of them wanted to waste the chance.

In this world, Danny was fairly popular. Once the ghosts started migrating from Wisconsin, the Fentons had become town heroes, and their children were awarded status accordingly. He knew Sam and Tucker as passing acquaintances only, but he had quite a few other friends. His grades were every bit as bad as Phantom's, though. Some things never change.

Phantom told his own version of events after that. Danny looked thoughtful when he mentioned beating Pariah Dark, but didn't interrupt. He wanted to talk to his father about it.

Once they finished swapping life stories, Danny sighed and walked across the floor to glance upstairs. "I'm getting worried," he confided. "Dad and Jazz should have been back by now "

"I'm sure they're okay…" Phantom tried to reassure the boy. He didn't succeed very well since he didn't really feel it.

Danny sighed again and shifted his weight. "I'm going to try to contact them," he called over his shoulder as he dashed upstairs.

Phantom reverted to his human mode and tried the door. It was locked, of course. Never mind that no ghost could get close enough to touch the door, or that said ghost would simply faze through the wall if the power went out. The door was locked. It seemed a useless gesture.

Or had it been meant for Vlad? The Fentons clearly knew he was Plasmius in this world. If he was half ghost here, they may have built this prison for him. But Danny had been amazed that Phantom was half ghost. Was that because he had never heard of one? Or was he just amazed that there was another one? Phantom resolved to ask as soon as he came back; a resolve that broke the second the boy came charging down the steps.

"They're in trouble!" he exclaimed as he shut off the ghost shielding around the cell. "You've got to get me there! To the hospital! They need my help!"

Phantom hesitated the barest moment. Danny had no powers, no abilities to give him an advantage. All he had was a plasma rifle and his desperate need to save his remaining family members. But, had their roles been reversed, the ghost boy would have felt the same. He shook his head and, fazing through the wall, grabbed his double and raced to the hospital.

* * *

"How did they get through?" Jazz yelled to her father. Jack didn't bother to respond; she wasn't actually expecting one anyway.

Pariah had been trying to bring the hospital down for some time. As Amity Park's main storage facility for food and medical supplies as well as medical aid, it was a prime target for an evil dictator trying to crush the people's hope. It was the focus of this day's attacks; the battle at Casper High had been a diversion.

They finished off the remaining few skeletal warriors and looked around. It didn't look good. There were a lot of people down. The Fentons ran to get the generator restarted while the wounded were carried inside.

"Looks like they're okay," Phantom said as he landed across the street.

Danny shook his head. "I don't get it. The person I talked to said-"

"It's just the most horrible thing!" a voice exclaimed overdramatically. The two boys whirled to face a smug, smirking Electra. "Pariah's forces are too strong; I don't think we can beat them."

Phantom stepped protectively in front of Danny. "What do you want?" he demanded, though not as forcefully as he intended. Kat was one of his friends; why was she evil here? It was confusing, and he had to work to remind himself that she was the enemy.

She doffed her hat theatrically and made a grandiose bow before tossing it into the air, where it vanished. "You intrigue me, ghost child," she informed him. "You look at me as though you know me, and are repulsed by what you see. I want to know why."

"Why did you lure us out here?" the ghost boy demanded. He didn't want her to know. The Kat he knew loved information; one of the quickest ways to infuriate her was to know something she did not.

Sure enough, faced with a question instead of an answer, she narrowed her eyes. The ever-present glow of electrical power, usually too faint to see, brightened considerably. Her voice became low and sultry, as though she was trying to put him off his guard by flirting. His Kat had done that on occasion, though never to him, thankfully. "Why don't you tell me what I want to know?" she said quietly. "And I won't reduce your little friend to so much burning meat."

He knew this game, but his Kat never really meant it. He had a feeling this one did. Still, he was confident that he could beat her, if he could make her angry enough. His voice practically dripped with condescension as he replied, "Wow. You mean I know something you don't?"

"Tell me, brat, or face the consequences!"

"I'll take 'consequences' for $200, Alex," he quipped and lobbed an energy blast.

Electra threw up her arms in meager defense of her face and teleported behind the boys. With a startled shout, Danny whirled around and tried to fire, but his rifle inexplicably jammed. He cringed as Electra raised her arm, but her blue lightning met only a green wall of energy.

"Stay behind me," Phantom said as he jumped through Danny, to the boy's alarm. People were starting to gather at the edge of the hospital parking lot. A few shots went past as someone tried to hit the combatants. Electra answered with a low voltage attack that knocked the humans to the ground, but did little damage. They weren't her targets yet.

"Who are you?" Electra demanded. She swung her cane like a bat, but it went straight through Danny's intangible torso. "Why do you know me?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Phantom smirked. He charged forward and carried them both halfway the street. It felt like trying to hang on to a live power line, but it didn't hurt near as much as it used to. He saw Jazz running past them out of the corner of his eye while he and Electra circled warily.

Jack yelled something, but Electra decided to try to decapitate him with her cane, and he couldn't hear what. She cried out suddenly and stumbled back; her form shimmered, as though she lost control for a moment. Phantom used the opportunity to blast her again, then realized the Ghost Shield had come up. He grinned.

Kat had mentioned once, when his Amity Park had been plagued by blackouts, that the power fluctuations hurt her. When Jack put the shield back up, it caused a sudden burst of power.

"You will regret that, ghost boy!" Electra growled. Her eyes shifted from brown to green and back to red as she got her form back under control.

"Come and get me, then!" Phantom taunted. He turned and fled; his opponent appeared before him, but he ducked beneath her and kept going. He needed to get her near the hospital's generator. Jack was going to kill him for this…

He turned human long enough to fall through the Ghost Shield, then changed back. Electra, of course, simply went straight through a hole that mysteriously appeared. That didn't matter; Phantom was counting on it. He heard shouting as the spectators began to panic and checked to make sure that Electra was still focused on him. He hovered above the generator and ignored Jack's enraged shouting.

"You know your dad's an idiot, right?" he asked as the girl started acting cautious. "And you have no taste in clothing."

"Still your tongue, err I cut it out!" Electra interrupted. She was still in character; he needed to infuriate her further. She wasn't stupid enough to attack while he was so close to the generator yet.

He dredged up everything he knew about her, and they traded insults for a while. This wasn't working quite as planned; he was going to have to start fighting again. He jumped forward and swung a punch that connected solidly with Electra's copper cane. She flashed a victorious grin.

"You see?" she laughed. "You uncultured barbarians always resort to violence."

Then it was time for Phantom to display a smug grin as he finally got his opponent lined up with the generator. "You talk too much," he informed her. He threw her against the side of the generator and fired an energy blast. The resulting power surge caused Electra to disperse completely with an anguished cry. She'd be back, but not for a while at least.

He hovered where he was, exhausted, until Jack walked quietly past to restore power a second time. The people had surrounded him in a loose semi-circle, but they didn't seem threatening. Curious, suspicious, and cautious, but not threatening.

Danny slipped through the crowd to join Phantom. "Now, that was cool!" he announced joyously. "How did you know to do that?"

The ghost boy shrugged. "Where I come from, she's a friend. I know all about her."

Jazz stepped warily behind her little brother. "Danny says you beat Pariah in your world."

"Well, I had a lot of help."

"That's more than we've done," Jack called over his shoulder. "How'd you do it?"

Phantom drifted closer, as much to get further away from the staring bystanders as anything else. "Um, my dad invented this ecto-skeleton thing that enhances a person's abilities, and I kind of stole it."

They regarded each other quietly while Jazz and Danny got everyone back inside. "I had an idea for something like that," the older man remarked. "But then Maddie died, and I just didn't care anymore. You really are…Danny, aren't you?"

He didn't seem to need a response, so Phantom didn't supply one. Instead, he helped repair the generator. Jack seemed deep in thought, an unusual occurrence even here. The boy had a feeling he knew what was going through the man's head. Of course, he would help. He was the only one who stood a chance against Pariah even with the ecto-skeleton. The rest of them were only human...


	5. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

The sun went down slowly; before it, the ruined city appeared to be in flames. It chillingly reminded Phantom of Pandora. His Amity Park had looked a lot like this one when she attacked. He dropped his chin onto his fist and sighed. He was starting to get homesick.

This place was so much like home, yet so different. When he tried to think about it, it made him dizzy. He wanted to go home. He wanted to see his parents, his Jazz, his Sam and Tucker. This place…as Kat would have said, the actors were the same, but the play was different.

That, of course, brought up a question he had been avoiding. Why was this Kat evil, and what did it mean for his? He was more than happy to be distracted by the sound of a window opening.

"Hey, are you okay?" Danny asked, finally having found the ghost boy sitting on the roof above his bedroom window. When his initial question prompted no response, he leaned on the windowsill and continued. "Jazz and Dad were talking about you earlier. I think she's kind of warming up to you." He glanced upward again, but there was still no visible sign that Phantom was paying attention. "Um…so how's the view?" he tried to joke.

Phantom half-smiled. "I've seen worse."

"This is pretty normal for you, huh?" Danny remarked. "Having weird things happen, I mean."

The ghost boy sank through the roof to join his double by the window. "Well, not this weird," he confessed.

"I heard Dad telling Jazz it would be pretty dangerous."

"Nah, Pariah'll be easy to beat once the ecto-skeleton is running."

"I meant using the ecto-skeleton…"

Phantom had been pointedly not thinking about that. Finally, he shrugged and said, "Your dad's more competent than mine. I should be fine."

They shared a grin and stared quietly at the window until Phantom remembered something he had been wondering earlier. "Hey, where is Plasmius here? Why isn't he around?"

Danny shrugged. "No one's seen him since Mom…uh, he just sort of vanished."

He wasn't taking his mother's death well. After close to two months, he was still waiting for her to come back, and Phantom didn't want to point out that she might not. Instead, he let the subject drop completely.

"Must be pretty cool to have ghost powers," Danny said suddenly.

Phantom smiled. For some reason, their conversations kept coming back to this point. He had the strangest feeling that the boy was plotting something, but that was none of his business. "Why don't we go see how your dad's coming along?" he suggested.

"Can we go through the floor?"

Laughing, the ghost boy carried his double straight down through the house to the lab. That was another thing he had noticed the past couple of days. It was as though Danny was trying to get used to how ghost powers felt when used on him. The boy had been drilling Phantom almost relentlessly about how his powers worked, seeming especially interested in what it had been like when he first got his powers. Jack and Jazz had questioned him extensively on the subject, as well, but theirs had been an academic interest. Danny's was more personal.

Down in the lab, the Ghost Portal was closed for the day. There were tools and such strewn across every available surface while Jack worked tirelessly on the Fenton Ecto-Skeleton. Jazz had left some time earlier to go on her rounds and make sure all the communities had enough supplies.

"Danny, just in time," Jack said, glancing over his shoulder. "Go try to raise your sister."

Phantom watched the boy run upstairs. "Why do you keep the radio in the kitchen?" he asked.

Jack gestured at the lab in general with a drill. "Too much interference down here. Can you get that welder?" Once he had it in hand, he sighed and said, "You know I'm not sure this will work, right?"

"It'll work," the ghost boy replied firmly.

"You know, I still don't know that I believe all this alternate reality stuff, but…" He stopped and turned to regard Phantom, then shook his head. "If it's an act, it's a good one."

There didn't seem to be anything to say to that, so they both grew silent. Phantom hovered and stared at the closed Ghost Portal for a while. "Why do you keep opening it?" he asked at last.

Jack took a moment to figure out what he was talking about. "You mean, why are we still waiting for Maddie to come back?" He thought for a few minutes. The truth was that there was no reason. It had become simple habit to wait for Maddie to come home. Danny was the only one who still believed she would. "For Danny," he responded at last. "Our Danny. He blames himself."

"I noticed. What happened?"

"It was during one of his attacks, back when he and Fright Knight still considered us a threat. We didn't know about Vlad being a ghost yet; that's when we found out. He decided to kidnap Danny to get to Maddie or something like that. She was trying to save him when Pariah showed up."

He didn't finish his narrative, but Phantom could fill in the blanks. Maddie tried to save Danny from Pariah and was killed. Vlad disappeared, then; maybe he was distraught. Danny blamed himself. Doubtless, he thought that if he hadn't been weak, his mother would still be alive.

The subject of their discussion came bounding down the stairs. "Jazz had to deal with a couple ghosts. She's fine, but the Assault Vehicle broke down, so she needs some help."

Jack muttered something not very nice about ghosts in general. "Can you two go? I want to get this thing finished tonight."

Danny grinned happily at the idea of flying through the air again; it had quickly become his favorite pastime. He grabbed his plasma rifle, and the two boys set off. Although the weather was unseasonably hot, it was rather chill at their altitude. Below, a few ghosts wandered aimlessly through the empty streets. Danny sniped at them and laughed.

"Man, this is cool!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah," Phantom agreed. "I think this is my favorite power. Although invisibility comes pretty close."

"That would be awesome, to sneak into the girl's locker room!" He sniped a few more ghosts, then realized that his companion was very pointedly not saying anything. "You've done that?"

"I plead the fifth."

Danny shook his head. "All right, fine. But only because Jazz is down there."

Phantom snickered. He angled their descent to land next to Jazz and stood guard while the two of them worked on the RV. It was very quiet, enough to make him nervous. He heard Jazz and Danny chatting behind him, but didn't pay much attention. Actually, he didn't pay attention to much of anything; he knew his ghost sense would warn him if any ghosts got too close.

A sudden rumbling heralded the repair of the Fenton RV; he had expected it to take longer. As he started to turn, he heard Jazz yell at Danny to get out of the way, and became intangible just in time for the RV to charge through him. "Everyone okay?" he called.

"Yeah, we're fine," Jazz replied breathlessly. "At least, now I know what was wrong with it."

The RV's engine growled menacingly as it got turned around. "You really think you can protect them, ghost boy?" came Electra's voice from sound system.

Kat could possess machinery; Phantom filed that bit of info away and rushed to his friends' aid. As the RV accelerated again, he made the three of them intangible, then carried them onto a low roof. "Uh…stay," he said and rushed off without waiting for a response. "Why are you doing this?" he yelled to the rampaging vehicle.

"Are you kidding?" Electra called back. "This thing is nice! I might have to move in!"

"I meant, why are you attacking me? Why are you evil?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" A weapon rose out of the roof and began firing lightning at the ghost boy. He dove and dodged for a few minutes, then went intangible and flew through the RV. He had done this to overshadowed people on occasion. Normally, he was able to knock the ghost out; today was no exception. Electra was hurled from the RV so hard that she bounced a few times on impact with the ground. She manifested her cane and twirled it like a baton as Phantom joined her. "Well, bugger!" she announced jovially.

"Fine!" the ghost boy exclaimed. "If you want to fight me, then fight me. But leave them out of it."

Electra regarded the tip of her cane and smirked knowingly. "So that's your weakness, is it? Compassion?" She pointed her cane and shot a bolt of blue lightning at overhang Danny and Jazz were hiding on. Phantom abandoned the fight to make sure they were okay. Jazz seemed fine, but Danny's leg was at an unnatural angle.

"He's unconscious," Jazz informed him. "And a good thing, too. This looks like a pretty bad break."

"Round three is mine, ghost boy!" Electra called. "Tend to your human pet. We will meet again; count on it!"


	6. Chapter Five

It was getting close to dawn when Jazz and Danny got home. Phantom had returned earlier to tell Jack what happened. He hovered in the air, trying to stay awake, and didn't pay much attention when Jazz came down into the lab.

"He's asleep," she said in answer to her dad's raised eyebrow. "It wasn't quite as bad as it looked."

"But it was still broken?" At Jazz's nod, he sighed. "He shouldn't have to deal with this; he's just-"

He was interrupted by a blue flash of light followed by a thump. "Ow!" Phantom yelped. He stood and rubbed his arm where he had landed on it. After a few seconds, Jazz started to laugh, earning a peevish glare from the ghost boy. He returned to ghost form and walked over to inspect the ecto-skeleton. "Is it ready?"

"Whenever you are," Jack answered, not bothering to hide his own amusement.

"Maybe you should get some sleep first," Jazz pointed out. Phantom stuck his tongue out at her and flew upstairs to sleep on the couch.

* * *

Danny leaned on his crutches to stare out the window and pout while his family finished loading the ecto-skeleton into the Assault Vehicle and got ready to leave. They wanted to find Pariah before they let Phantom use it to minimize the time it would have to drain him.

They had all come up to say goodbye; the morose attitudes Jack and Jazz wore had done nothing to ease his concern. He should be there. He had let his mother down, and now he was letting the rest of his family down. And all because of a stupid broken leg. He could still fight. He could!

"Oh, who am I kidding?" he muttered. If he went with them like this, they would be stuck protecting him. It would be a repeat of when Maddie…

He stared at the retreating form of the RV, then stared at nothing for a while. As a half-ghost, Phantom could heal from just about anything pretty quickly. Most damage even disappeared completely when he transformed, he said. Danny grinned; he had been planning on this since he first found out what Phantom was. Alone in the house with no one to stop him, this seemed as good a time as any.

He limped over to his closet and sifted through the pile of clothes until he found what he was looking for: black jeans and a black, long-sleeved shirt. He got changed, mindful of the cast around his leg, then limped to the dresser to find the sticker he had made. It would be his emblem. For now, it was white, but if this worked, it would be a white "P" inside a black "D".

Downstairs at last, he paused in the kitchen for a pair of shears, then went the rest of the way to lab to cut off his cast. If this worked, he wouldn't need it anymore. If it didn't work…

It wouldn't matter anyway.

He shut off the Ghost Portal from the main switch before opening the door. Phantom had said he pressed a button while he was inside it, and Danny thought he knew exactly which one. His dad had put an on switch inside the portal for some reason, probably the same reason the control for the emergency op-center was in the fridge. He paused for a moment to wonder if Phantom's dad was that weird, then tossed his crutches out and hit the button.

* * *

Phantom stared out the back window of the RV to watch his double stare out his window. Danny had really wanted to come; there was a moment when they all thought he would try to stow away. But he had finally acquiesced to remaining at home.

"Maybe we should have brought him anyway," Jazz sighed from the passenger seat. Phantom drifted toward the front.

"He would have been in danger," Jack responded.

"He's in danger no matter where he is with things like this. At least if he came with us, he wouldn't be stuck waiting for us to come home like he does Mom."

A long, subdued silence followed that seemed to beg for a change of subject. "Um, maybe you should put the Ghost Shield up," Phantom said quietly. "In case Electra shows up…" Jack hit the appropriate switch. The distinctly uncomfortable silence returned. Finally, the boy asked, "So…where're we going?"

The pause was just long enough to make Phantom think he was being ignored before Jazz answered. "Pariah's using the police station as his base of operations. I think he called it ironic." She shook her head in what might have been disgust. "Anyway, we know Fright Knight's there, and Pariah might be."

"Anyone else I should know about?"

Father and daughter exchanged glances. "What do you mean?" she asked. Phantom shrugged and named off a few of his enemies.

"Oh, they've been dealt with already," Jack interrupted. "They came here trying to get away from Pariah, and we sent them back…what, a few months ago?"

Jazz nodded. "Something like that, yeah."

The RV slowed to a stop as the police station came into view. On the roof, Fright Knight sat astride his bat-winged horse to quietly watch the foolish interlopers. There was no reason to attack yet; they were only harmless humans.

"Okay, here's the plan," Phantom said as he fazed through the ecto-skeleton and went human to activate it. "I deal with Fright Knight, you guys deal with the skeleton ghosts, then I get inside and suck Pariah into the Fenton Thermos. Sound good?"

"We'll deal with Fright Knight," Jack contended, hefting a Ghost Bazooka. "You just get inside and find Pariah."

The boy started to argue, but the looks of grim determination on his companions' faces silenced him. Instead, he switched back to ghost mode with the ecto-skeleton and nodded. The three of them shared a moment of quiet camaraderie, then Phantom launched into the air while Jack and Jazz started running.

* * *

The slightly green-tinted ceiling swam slowly into focus. The ceiling was supposed to be white, so why was it green? Danny sat up slowly; he felt strange. It wasn't painful, just really, really strange. He realized the green ceiling was being caused by light from the open Ghost Portal and got to up close it. At least, that was the plan. Unfortunately, the plan would have to wait as he noticed that he was no longer touching the ground. In accordance with Murphy's Law, the second Danny noticed that he was hovering, he fell.

"Ow…" he said into the floor. He sat up and looked himself over with a grin. White jeans, white shirt, black emblem…he pulled his hair down to note that it, too, was white now. His hands and feet were bare, but his leg wasn't broken anymore. He willed himself back into the air and drifted unsteadily over to close the Ghost Portal, then landed. "I'm not dreaming!" he shouted happily. Blue rings appeared to pass over him, then, turning him into a human again. He sulked for a moment before changing back. This ghost thing wasn't as easy as it looked.

Danny willed himself to go intangible, then jumped into the air. While he did succeed in getting airborne, he forgot to concentrate on staying intangible and crashed into the ceiling. This, in turn, caused him to become human again, and he crashed to floor. "Darn it!" he exclaimed. He stood, closed his eyes, and took a few deep breaths. If Phantom could do it, he could, too. They were just two different versions of the same person, after all.

No, this wasn't nearly as easy as it looked.

Danny opened glowing green eyes and drifted into the air. He knew what he could do, and he knew more or less how to do it; it was simply a matter of mind over matter. He actually made it through the ceiling this time.

Outside, the newly made ghost boy looked up longingly at the sky and decided that he did not want to fall from that high up. He flew low to the ground and practiced his ectoplasmic energy blast on various targets. He had decent aim, even if he couldn't always get it to work.

"Intriguing," remarked a voice that sent chills down Danny's spine. Startled, he unconsciously reverted to human mode and fell to the ground. He scrambled to his feet and backed away from the slowly advancing Electra. "The ghost child's human pet, if I'm not mistaken."

"Uh…I-I'm not…anybody's pet…" the boy stammered. He was trying to be brave. He would have felt a little better if he could have been in ghost mode, but he was too scared to be able to focus.

"Humans are worthless creatures," Electra said vaguely. "I used to love to torment them. It's fun, watching them panic…"

Danny backed into a building and gulped. Of course, since he was so desperate to go intangible now, the power steadfastly refused to activate. "Wh-wh-what do you want?" he attempted to demand.

Electra removed her hat with a grand flourish and grinned menacingly. "To be left to my own devices. Tell me, boy. Why does the other one persist in attacking me?"

"You attacked us!"

"I did no such thing! When first we met, I was merely laughing at the foolish antics of ants. The second, when I sent for you, I only wanted information. It wasn't until our third meeting that I decided on a preemptive strike. Now, boy, who is he?" When Danny hesitated, attempting to bravely refuse, she leaned closer and let her eyes spark. "Tell me, or I will make you wish I had never been born."

The boy whined slightly. "Phantom. It's Phantom. That's his name."

Electra smiled, and her eyes slid from red to brown. "Now, that's better, isn't it? You're a smart boy. Where are you off to, smart boy?"

"To help beat Pariah…" he answered quietly.

"A worthwhile cause."

Danny creased his eyes in confusion. "You're not working for him?"

"Oh, Brightness, no!" she laughed. "I'm a free agent, boy. The only ghost willing to work for Pariah Dark is Fright Knight, and that only because he's mad as a hatter." She paused to look thoughtful, then added, "Well, and that skeleton army of his, but they don't count. They don't think."

"But you have attacked us!" Danny argued. "You tried to kill my dad!"

"Yes. And think back, if you will, to who started that fight."

Danny stared at Electra. True, Jack was the one who had actually attacked first, but she would have. Right? She was a ghost, and ghosts were evil.

But Phantom was a ghost, and he wasn't evil. In fact, Danny was a ghost now, too, and he wasn't evil, either. "…Then, will you help us fight Pariah?" he asked tentatively.

Electra laughed lightly. "Oh, my dear boy, I am not a warrior. I am a thespian. My passion is the arts, not violence. Though I will confess, I am quick to anger and quicker to destroy. Be on your way, then, but be warned. You have piqued my interest. Cheerio!" She replaced her hat and tipped it slightly, then vanished into thick red smoke.

Danny stood where he was for several minutes, then tilted his head back against the wall and breathed a sigh of relief. It took a while longer before he noticed that he was sinking into the concrete. He gave a half-hearted chuckle as he floated back out and reverted to ghost mode. At least she didn't try to kill him.

* * *

A/N: ARGH! You have no idea...I keep having to correct where I've called Phantom "Danny", so if you see a reference to Danny that looks like it should be more correctly interpreted as Phantom, please tell me so I can fix it.


	7. Chapter Six

Phantom slowed his flight somewhat as he neared the police station. He expected Fright Knight to ride out to meet him, but the ghostly dragoon merely continued to watch. Although his face was invisible beneath his bucket-shaped helmet, the boy thought he seemed to smirk. He shrugged mentally and continued through the wall.

Inside the station appeared to be deserted. A dead plant sat forgotten in its cracked pot in the far corner. Phantom walked slowly around a wall to the main room, prepared to deal with anything Pariah decided to throw at him.

Anything that is, except for what he saw.

"A ghost using his powers to help humans?" sneered his opponent. "How very quaint…"

Phantom blinked in confusion, completely at a loss for words. Well, at least now he knew what happened to Plasmius and Maddie. "You beat Pariah?" he asked, bemused.

Vlad chuckled evilly and rose from the throne-like chair that had once belonged to Pariah. "Phantom wasn't it?" he confirmed as he strode over to a clear plastic cage containing the ghost of a red-haired woman in a blue hazmat suit. Maddie glared defiantly at her captor, who smirked and turned his attention back to the ghost boy. "And this," he gestured derisively toward the ecto-skeleton. "What is this? It looks like something that idiot Jack Fenton would build."

"He's not an idiot!" Phantom exclaimed, interrupting Maddie about to say the same thing. She gave him a strange look that he pretended not to notice. Doubtless, she had noted the similarities in appearance between the ghost boy and her son and was beginning to wonder if Danny was still alive. He would correct her on that point later; for now, Vlad was approaching.

He twisted the Ring of Rage around on his finger, a gesture designed to bring Phantom's attention to the fact that he was wearing it, as though the Crown of Flame wasn't obvious enough. He radiated an aura of smug superiority as he mocked the ghost boy. "Well, if you really want to trust your existence to a device made by that idiot, who am I to argue? Less work for me."

"My husband is twice the man you'll ever be, Vlad Masters!" Maddie interjected angrily.

Vlad turned his head slightly. "Ex-husband, my dear. Ex-husband. It's 'Til _death_ do us part,' remember?"

Phantom used the exchange to come up with some kind of plan. If it were Pariah, he simply would have used his newfound access to his duplication powers to beat him senseless like he did last time. Vlad, however, required a certain craftiness of which the fourteen-year-old boy was in short supply. "So how did you do it?" he asked, pretending to be interested. Like all egomaniacs, Vlad liked to broadcast his grand intelligence, and it gave Phantom a little more time to think.

True to form, Vlad smirked slightly. "Oh, it was easy really. The Fright Knight was, shall we say…less than happy with Pariah. He came around to my way of thinking rather quickly. After that, it was nothing more than a simple cognitive exercise to topple the 'King of Ghosts'. I, then, took him apart, molecule by molecule." He gave a low, menacing chuckle. "He certainly won't be trying to oppose me, again."

With the ecto-skeleton, their power levels were close to matching. Vlad was dangerous because he knew the benefits of stealth and cunning, something that Pariah never bothered to care about. Phantom had the advantage of knowing all about Vlad while remaining a mysterious element himself. Now, if he could just figure out how to use that advantage.

Unable to put the actual battle off any longer, he dodged Vlad's first blast and returned with one of his own. Maybe he'd figure something out along the way.

* * *

While Phantom entered the station, the Fentons started blasting skeleton ghosts, a process that would have been considerably easier if not for the large trench that prevented them from bringing the Assault Vehicle. There were quite a few ghost warriors, although they weren't wielding any kind of projectiles. Normally, they would still have been a problem by sheer force of numbers, but they attacked in such small groups that they were easy to pick off at a distance. The problem was going to be Fright Knight. He was still watching, waiting for them to run out of power fighting the army.

Jack and Jazz began firing with their plasma rifles. Although they couldn't send ghosts back to the Ghost Zone, they could cause enough damage to make them disperse for a while. When those ran out of power, they were forced to switch to Ghost Bazookas. It was easier to get rid of the ghosts, but it also meant that by the time they banished the last ones and Fright Knight attacked, they only had three shots left between them.

"Jazz," Jack said quietly. "Take care of your brother."

"You are not doing this alone, Dad," Jazz forcefully responded.

"Someone has to take care of Danny! Now, go home!" With a wordless battle cry, he charged forward. All previous attempts to defeat Fright Knight from a safe distance invariably failed, and he wanted to be closer before he used his last shot. Even if it meant his own life, he was going to make it count. He had only made it a few feet, however, when a white blur came out of nowhere to knock the Fright Knight from his horse.

Danny was very proud of himself for succeeding in that sneak attack. He honestly didn't think it would work. He rubbed his knuckles where they had hit Fright Knight's armor. "I made it!" he yelled happily with a wave to his family.

Deciding to simply take it in stride and deal with it later, Jack yelled to Jazz to grab more weapons, then charged forward, wielding his Bazooka like a club. He certainly wasn't going to try firing it, now; it might pull Danny in.

"Danny!" he yelled. "When your sister gets back, go help Phantom!"

"I'm not going to leave you!" Danny argued, inexpertly dodging a kick from the Black Pegasus.

"That wasn't a suggestion! We can't use the Ghost Bazookas with you here!"

"No one's going anywhere!" Fright Knight exclaimed. "Except to a dimension where your worst fears become reality!" He swung the Soul Shredder at Jack, who blocked with his own weapon. They became locked in a fierce struggle for the upper hand that was brought to a halt when a blast of plasma hit the ghost square in the head.

Jack tossed the now-defunct Bazooka aside and turned to catch a plasma rifle. Danny hesitated a few seconds longer. He was afraid if he left, he would never see them again. But his father was right; they couldn't send Fright Knight back to the Ghost Zone without the risk of sending him as well, something they would never do. He gave Fright Knight a parting energy blast and fled for the police station. Although he couldn't see it, that proved to be the turning point in that particular battle.

He paused at the door to go intangible and slid through, then slowly floated forward, unwittingly mimicking his double from earlier. The sounds of battle were loud and fierce, and he didn't feel comfortable trying to take on Pariah directly. He was afraid of getting in the way like he thought he had outside. Instead, he took an adjacent corridor to the main room and activated his invisibility to slip through the wall without being seen.

It was a testament to his priorities that the first thing he saw was his mother. He clapped his hands over his mouth as his voice threatened to betray him and shot across the room to duck behind the prison. He couldn't touch the wall from the outside as a ghost, so he went human again and tapped on it.

Startled, Maddie jerked around and froze. She opened her mouth to say something, then remembered that she did not want to draw Vlad's attention to her son and chose to look worried instead.

The boy grinned happily and snuck around front to try the door, but it was apparently modeled after the ghost prison at Fenton Works. Maddie had insisted they put a lock on the door, just in case. She was probably regretting that now.

"Danny," she whispered, then pointed to the control panel on the other side of Vlad's throne. He nodded understanding, went invisible again, and dashed across. Behind him, Maddie opened her mouth to speak again, but words escaped her. Instead, she once again began wondering about the current status of her son's existence.

* * *

Phantom howled in pain and collapsed to the ground. He managed to stay in ghost mode, but it was a fight to do so. The ecto-skeleton was done for, and so was he. The world was starting to spin before his eyes. He went intangible and fell from the machine, not that it would actually help prolong his life. Maybe as a full ghost, he'd have a better chance against Vlad.

His enemy was speaking again, but he wasn't paying much attention. He just wanted this to be over, now. Movement caught his eyes as something black dashed between Maddie's prison and the throne. He snapped his focus back to Vlad's face, lest the older ghost realize something was amiss behind him. It occurred to the boy to wonder why Danny was there when he was supposed to be home with a broken leg, but all thoughts were driven away as Vlad cried out in rage and whirled around.

Maddie backed away swiftly, the Crown of Fire in her hands and an expression of victory on her face. "Come on, Vlad," she taunted him as only she could. "Come and get it."

"Woman," Vlad answered warningly. "I love you, but you are sorely trying my patience."

"Ew!" Danny exclaimed, switching to ghost mode. "Dude, that's my mom!" He fired an energy blast, but Vlad recovered from his surprise at meeting another half ghost and swatted it aside.

"Oh, now, that's just-" he began. A sudden blast of pale blue light cut him off as he was sucked into the Fenton Thermos, shouting his wrath.

"I should be surprised by this," Phantom good-naturedly addressed his double. "But I'm not." Danny shrugged.

"Okay," Maddie broke in. "Will someone please-"

"Mom!" Jazz yelled as she and her father entered the room. They ran forward; after a moment, Danny joined them, and they shared a very tearful reunion.

Phantom blinked in confusion as the image suddenly froze. His attention was drawn by a weight around his neck, and he glanced down to see a gold medallion with the initials "CW" engraved on it.

"I'd say it's time to go home, wouldn't you?"

"Clockwork!" he exclaimed, turning.

The old ghost bowed slightly. "I apologize for letting my…counterparts drag you into this."

"The Guardians of Space, you mean?"

Clockwork nodded solemnly, suddenly a small child. "Time and space are interrelated, I'm afraid. They are rather more meddlesome than I, however. This world was an experiment for them; one that they botched. They manipulated you into coming here to fix their mistakes, and now, I'm here to take you home."

Phantom looked back at the frozen moment of pure joy and shook his head. "Can I say goodbye?" he asked.

Clockwork smiled. "Time…in!" he said, hitting the button on top of his staff and allowing time to resume.

Phantom took a few steps forward and waited until the happy family noticed him. "Black would've looked better," he said affably, nodding at Danny.

"I didn't want to copy you too much," the boy answered sheepishly, unconsciously brushing his emblem. Then he drew himself up, and said with just a touch of arrogance, "White's more distinctive anyway." They shared a laugh, then Jack stepped forward.

"Thanks, Phantom," he said. He shook hands with the ghost boy, then relieved him of the Fenton Thermos. "We really couldn't have done this without you."

"I couldn't have done it, either, if Danny hadn't showed up," he refuted. He gestured toward Clockwork, standing patiently behind him. "It's time for me to go home, now."

"We won't forget you," Jazz piped up suddenly. She laughed slightly and ruffled her brother's white hair. "How can we?"

Maddie drifted forward slightly. "Thank you."

Phantom smiled, then turned. "I'm ready."

The once again aging ghost nodded to the family and hit the button on his staff. "Time…out!"

* * *

A/N: Well, just the epilogue left. I have to say, the ending of this one turned out better than I thought it would. I was considering just having Phantom disappear with Clockwork, but this is more meaningful. I think, anyway.

I really...shouldn't confess this, but I have to. I wasn't actually planning on this chapter when I wrote it. In fact, I was halfway through a fight with Pariah when this hit me, and I had to start again. But I like it better this way.


	8. Epilogue

Clockwork floated in the center of a room full of empty mirrors and glared around him. "Now, would you mind telling me exactly what that little fiasco was supposed to prove?" The prevailing silence was decidedly embarrassed.

"We were…" one of the Guardians began. It trailed off, but another picked up the sentence.

"We were bored," it confessed. "Eons of doing nothing but watching…you know how it feels."

"You have meddled, too, Master of Time," a third chastised.

"Yes," Clockwork agreed. "I have meddled. There is a very pronounced difference between meddling and altering the course of an entire world's future." One of the mirrors flashed an image of the evil Dan Phantom. "That was official meddling, and you know it!"

"We know," it said slyly.

"Be gone, Master of Time!" commanded yet another. "Our business is none of your concern."

"It becomes my concern when you recruit one of my charges," Clockwork pointed out. "Very well; I'm leaving. Next time, ask first." He disappeared before they could debate further. He knew what they were going to say, and they would be right. He would have said, "No."

* * *

Phantom looked around cautiously at the empty room. He was in the lab, and the distinct lack of a ghost prison told him that it was his lab. He sighed happily at being home again, where he could go by Danny again, and reverted to human mode. That was the longest time he had ever remained in ghost mode, and he was happy to see he wasn't suffering any ill effects from it. Except that he was quite suddenly aware that he had not eaten in two or three days. 

He quietly snuck upstairs to see Sam, Tucker, and Jazz leaning over the kitchen table, deep in conversation. His parents were nowhere in evidence, so he walked the rest of the way in. "Hey, guys!" Instantly, he was surrounded by blessedly familiar faces, all demanding to know where he had been and was he okay. He laughed slightly, but inwardly he was anxious. "Geeze, how long have I been gone?" he asked, trying to make light of things.

"Almost two hours!" Jazz exclaimed. She noticed her brother's obvious sigh of relief, but Sam spoke before she could ask.

"We were getting ready to come in after you!"

"Are you okay?" Tucker interrupted. "What happened?"

"Okay, first of all," Danny began. "I haven't eaten in three days, and I'm very hungry. I'll tell you about it over dinner."

"Dude, it's midnight," Tucker informed him.

"Whatever."

* * *

In another world, another Danny flew across the night sky. He was grounded for leaving the house, but his dad hadn't thought to set up the Ghost Shield. It was really easy to sneak out when a person could walk through walls. 

Aside from going invisible or intangible at odd, inconvenient times, having ghost powers was great. Flying was his second favorite part. His first favorite was the fact that all the shielded communities were unnecessary; that the ruin he saw below him would finally be restored to its former glory; and that he had helped in that.

He hovered motionless for a while to brush the emblem on his chest. He was Danny Phantom, now, having adopted his double's name. He wouldn't be here now, if not that other Danny. Vlad would still hold his mother prisoner; evil ghosts would still stalk the streets. Amity Park didn't need to be afraid anymore, though. And Danny Phantom was here to-

Blue transformation rings appeared suddenly to turn him human and drop him about a dozen feet before he recovered. He decided it would probably be wise to fly a little lower until he got better control of that. But he would get control. Someone had to keep Amity Park safe, after all.

* * *

A/N: Now, before you ask, I'm not answering any question about whether or not AU Danny will be making a repeat performance. Well, maybe just one. There is an idea in the back of my head. But even if it does happen, it won't be for while. 

For those of you just starting to read my work, this is my fifth story. The others are, in order, Pandora's Box, Electric Rhapsody, Starcrossed, and The Dark Angel. You can find the list in my profile, along with a really cool poem I wrote.

Thank you all for reading, and your kind words. I honestly can't believe I haven't gotten any flames yet, not that I'm complaining. Anyway, next story is that crossover I was telling you guys about. Don't worry if you've never played the Suffering; just pretendit's like any other fic of mine. I explain everything you need to know in the prologue.


End file.
